TMobilesucks

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

In December of 2004, I made the mistake of leaving Alltel wireless for T-Mobile. Why did I do this? Well to be honest, I did it for the wrong reason and for that I accept responsibility. I simply wanted a service that would allow me to use the new HP Ipaq converged PDA/Cellphone.

What happened as a result of this decision is a nightmare of poor customer service, lost revenue,wasted money, spotty reception, lost customers and increasingly ambivalent customer service representatives at T-Mobile. These guys are the absolute worst!

Shortly after purchasing the HP Ipaq and T-Mobile Service ("Welcome aboard, Sir!") I ported my Alltel phone number over from Alltel to T-Mobile with no issues. Now, I am a Network Engineer and I have my own consulting firm. Needless to say, I live by my mobile and my bluetooth headset. Right off the bat, the phone pairing between the headset and the phone was intermittent. OK, I contacted T-Mobile Techsupport no less than 5 times before I finally got in touch with a Support specialist who could tell me the Bluetooth headset I was using was not compatible with the Ipaq.

FINALLY! Jeez Louise! Didn't anyone at T-Mobile or HP create an "HCL" (Hardware Compatibility List) for this thing? Why does it take 5 support calls to T-Mobile to discover something that should have been included with the Device documentation - Oh well, just chalk it up to "T-MOBILE SUCKS!"

So I went out and bought another blutooth headset, and finally that issue was straightened out. When all of a sudden....The device crashed! I couldn't make or recieve calls at all - Dead in the water baby!

I called T-Mobile Tech Support and we went through the required trouble shooting session - When finally the support specialist agreed with my assessment the device is NFG (No freaking good) - must be a technical term. So T-Mobile offers to replace the device but...

1. They replace it with a "remanufactured" translate "USED" Ipaq - Crap! mine was only a month old! No amount of whining could change their minds. Is this fair?2. It takes 5 to 7 business days to recieve it. What? 5 to 7 days where my customers can't contact me? I begged them, pleaded with them- to overnight the stupid remanufactured device to me. Even offered to pay the shipping! T-Mobile's answer? "I'm sorry sir, we have no way to do that! But you can get a loaner phone at one of our stores."

Fine, so I go to the local T-Mobile store. I walk in and ask for the aforementioned "Loaner" and do you know what the answer was? "Im sorry sir, that is only available through a CORPORATE store and we are an independent agent!" OK I say, Let's find the nearest CORPORATE store - 245 miles away!

So this is where I was at after a month with T-Mobile:

* I paid 499 for the Ipaq* Switched to T-Mobile* I had to buy a new Bluetooth Headset - 145 bucks for that* The phone crashed - no phone* 5 to 7 days to replace a one month old phone/PDA with a remanufactured piece of crap.* No loaner phones were essentially (effectively) available.